Dear Friends,

Our country has an incredible living tradition of craft.  Our master craftsmen and women are amazing artisans.  The art forms come to us down the ages.  The artisans preserve our heritage and are a bridge to the future.  They carry a legacy and create works of beauty.  
These are traditions that we should be proud of and must encourage to preserve and grow.  

This विरासत is part of our memory.  How do we link this memory to dreams - to fantasy?

In the current 'economy' the artisans do not get pride of place.  They are labelled as craftsmen and women, who often work with others and get a 'wage' for their work.  We all get paid a 'wage' for what we do, but different people get compensated differently.

Our family is from Kutch.  But for a long time, our work in education, healthcare and rural development has been in Maharashtra and Karnataka.  Our primary business - Godavari Biorefineries Limited - is located in these states - and they represent our कर्मभूमी - My father was born in Kutch - and he used to say that he wanted to do a social intervention in his place of birth - his मातृभूमी, his वतन.  He purchased land for this purpose, but passed away before he could either implement or even articulate his dream.

I have often wondered how we could bring our Artisans into the mainstream.  My wife, my mother. mother-in-law and sister have often worn beautiful sarees and textiles.  My father-in-law was a woodworker and also an architect.  Both he and my father were collectors and patrons of Art.  

So if we are to provide opportunity to our artisans, we have to expose them to the world.  Where memory can evolve.  Evolve to make dreams come true, where memory merges with fantasy.

And so we decided to create a school for educating these artisans to become artisan designers.  We founded Somaiya Kala Vidya in Kutch (https://www.somaiya-kalavidya.org/en), Somaiya kalavidya is a school to teach design and business to traditional artisans. Every year we graduate 10-20 women and also men artisans. Recently we have opened a branch in Bagalkot (in Karnataka).  We will expand our outreach to different crafts and different parts of IIndia.  

In the last ten years, we have built a beautiful institution housed in a beautiful building (designed by Hemen Sanghvi of Morbi) that also uses traditional techniques of construction.  We hired Judy Frater who has done much to promote design education of Artisans in Kutch to be our Founder (First) Director.  She led the institution for the first few years until she left in 2019.  In constructing the building, we used traditional designs and traditional material of construction.

Today Nishith Sangomla is our Director of Somaiya Kala Vidya and Somaiya Kala Vidya is fully supported under the umbrella of Somaiya Vidyavihar.  

The Diploma awarding ceremony is a sight to see.  This happens in Kutch - with a few thousand villagers supporting their young diploma awardees on the site of our campus.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1HcwN5achHqHNA4vwdEQ0QFlfuE2HL025/view?usp=sharing

The Diploma ceremony is a place where we give the artisan designers, their families and their communities a greater sense of pride for the work they do.  

My wife, Amrita Somaiya, is passionate about textiles and is doing much with the team to revive and grow the textile traditions of India (beginning in Kutch).  Traditions and Artisans of Ajrakh, Bandhini, Souf, Mashru, Batik are all finding a place here.  Young members of the families of these artisans are returning to their विरासत

Last week, five of our artisan designer students (Shakeel bhai - Batik, Amruta - Mashru, Muskan - Bandhni, Mubassirah - Ajrakh and Zaid Khatri - Ajrakh) were invited to the Lakme Fashion Week (https://lakmefashionweek.co.in/home/schedule). 

In Amrita Somaiya's words:  
'Seeing our artisan designers take the stage at Lakme Fashion Week was nothing short of magical.  A dream, nurtured, finally came to life and I could feel the emotion in every stitch, every weave that graced the runway.  This was not just a show; it was a celebration of tradition, of design education, craftsmanship, and the artisan designers who pour their soul into their work.  Watching them receive the recognition they richly deserve was overwhelming.....'

Here is the recording of the show - This happened at the Jio World Convention Centre at BKC in Mumbai.  Do take a look:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/11VgG2fjpADmmg8UUhOs-Dt1CHO1OodBi/view?usp=drivesdk

The Lakme Fashion week is a platform that gives the artisans designers wings to fly, and gives all of us a sense of pride about our heritage and culture.    

As we go forward, we need to appreciate our art, architecture, music, literature and everything that has been handed down to us.  Only when we are exposed to this, in our time and in our world, will we appreciate and find ways to make these traditions and arts come alive in our daily life.